Along the Way

The other day I pulled a water jug cap out of my pocket at the end of the day. Today it was a clothes pin that had been on a chip bag. See, I’m a firm believer in “…along the way…”

As in, “You’re going down the hall? Along the way, take this to the back fridge.” And “On your way home could you stop by Rural King and pick up some dog food for me, please?”

As I buzz around the house, I pick up all those little miscellaneous things that are just left lying around. I grab them as I run past and if I’m not going to where the item is supposed to be, it gets dropped in my pocket. When the kids were little, at the end of the day I would empty my pockets and find a lego, a marble, a tissue (used, of course), a dolly spoon, and anything else that I’d scoop up along the way then forget to drop in its right place. It didn’t take long to accumulate quite a pile if I didn’t deal with it right away. Sure, picking up all that stuff left scattered around the house is good, but it needs to be dealt with or it creates a mess of its own.

It reminds me of sin. I take my “along the way” lifestyle and try to apply it to spiritual things and it doesn’t work well at all. Why? For the same reason I end up with a pocketful of stuff. I forget about it.

I’ll see things I need to confess to God, scoop it up and drop it in a pocket without paying much attention to it but knowing I need to deal with it. At the end of the day, if I don’t intentionally take time talking with God about those things, they just get piled up, creating a mess all their own. The longer I put off taking care of those things, the bigger the pile seems to multiply.

He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.
~Proverbs 28:13

I keep a devotional book in a spot I know I’ll land in for a few minutes here and there. I like to read the day’s devotion at random times throughout the day, as I have time. And prayer? That’s a huge along the way item. Living in the country gives me lots of drive time some days—my preferred prayer time. But if I have a chatty child in the car with me, guess what happens? I don’t say “Would you puh-leeze quit yacking cuz I’m trying to pray here.” Although sometimes I feel like it.

But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. ~Luke 5:16

My Bible reading and study? That’s when I sit with brunch (because breakfast is a busy time here and I can’t make it until lunch time without food). But even that time gets shoved off to the side if things are going fast and furious here, as they sometimes do.

Our relationship with God is one of those things that must be more than just along-the-way. It must be intentional, too.

Since Patty quit running from God's call on her life and surrendered her pen to Him, she's been happy. Life is never dull as she juggles being a wife, mom to a handful of kids and a couple of Capuchin monkeys, life on the road, and being a writer. As long as she's obeying God's leading, she figures that sanity is a novelty and not a necessity in the zoo she lives in. Patty clings to the promise that God will enable her to do what He asks of her, otherwise she would be living with the scaredy cats at the Funny Farm and not just occasionally visiting. You can find her on Instagram, too, where she daily sneaks in a few sane moments.